22 March 2009

Starting to become a habit ...

4:00pm - Gary packing; Lori keeping Jessie from bugging Daddy; Charlie hunkered down in Lori's closet watching Gary pack - her doggie depression just starting; Gary's 'car' arrives

4:25pm - Hugs and kisses all round (I am lucky if I get to go before Charlie)

4:30pm - Gary leaves; driver loads his luggage; Charlie sneaks off to quietly mourn

5:00pm - Jessie declares she is ready to go 'home' now that Daddy has left and there is nothing fun to do.

6:00pm - My new habits:

Drop his office chair so it fits under his desk (ALWAYS out in the middle of the office since for his height it does not fit under his desk) and tuck it neatly under his desk.

Clean up his desk, take the cup to to sink, straighten all the crap I will now have to look at since he has done nothing with it and won't get to it for 3 weeks.

Unplug his electric toothbrush and dump it in a drawer (SO ugly and marring the beautiful cleanliness of my bathroom counters - and there's that OCD problem) - it seriously stays there till the day he comes home - mine is battery operated and stored 'properly' out of sight...

Clean off his end table (I mean, he is not going to be using any of the stuff and so unsightly) and clean up the crap he deposits on his side of the bed that I never see unless I actually walk over there or go to the TV area

Turn on the light over the sink as a nightlight - for my nightly roaming. Gary is always turning it off when we go to bed, but when he is not here - more often than not I am roaming the house at all hours of the night and it is a good idea to have a light on to not bump into things.

...

I guess there will be more things I do as the week continues ... I had not noticed that I had these little: Gary's home / Gary's away issues - but there they were today.

Who knows what I come up with when he's leaving for 6 and 7 weeks at a time - so far the routine is quite small ... (start selling his stuff I don't like on ebay ... turn that air conditioned, beautifully cupboarded 'garage' into a huge craft room ..., you know - little things. He is actually moving when he gets back: furniture, clothes, etc to the house he finds in Australia - I am thinking that half of his closet is mine! And I have always needed one more drawer in the bathroom ...)

6 comments:

Court said...

Our dogs get depressed when we leave, too. It is the craziest dog emotion I have ever witnessed.

Keep us posted and let us know how you are doing. I think you've got a good plan there with the craft garage. And that extra drawer in the bathroom can be for all your awesome lip gloss.

Cherri said...

Funny, but sad too. Don't take over completely - keep enough of Gary things evident so you have to keep bumping over them. It will help to annoy you and you will miss him less!

Leslie said...

It must feel strange to be going through this. I am sorry! Why must he take furniture? Are there no furnished apartments in Australia? Can he not rent furniture?

Lori Hurst said...

He said he would feel like it was more his home if he took some of our furniture. Since we have 3 TV / Family Room'ish areas plus a living room - all full of leather couches, recliners and chairs - and I don't really watch TV - he can take some furniture and I probably won't miss it!

I do feel bad for him that he will be living alone in a strange house in another country and want it to go as smooth as possible for him - so if he want some furniture to feel more 'at home' I will gladly part with some of it.

Leslie said...

This makes sense to me. How thoughtful of you! Oh, my heart is reaching out to ya girl!

Jennifer said...

Well, I never really thought about Gary feeling homesick through all of this. How thoughtless of me. Still, I'm thinking of y'all.